The man remembered for his circus, P.T. Barnum, once said, “A sucker is born every minute.” I don’t want to be one of them.
I am, if I think: “God is love, therefore he couldn’t send anyone to hell.”
The devil told that lie long ago to two unsuspecting people in a garden. Adam and Eve believed it. They disobeyed God. They ushered sin and death into the world.
Adam and Eve were punished for their sin. God also promised them a Savior. He is the answer to the problem.
God is love. God is also fair.
He must punish sin, or he isn’t fair. But to save us from punishment for our sins, he substituted his Son, Jesus Christ. There is the love.
Perhaps you know the verse: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16).
In the same chapter the Bible says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36).
God’s love and justice are combined in Jesus. Jesus wouldn’t have suffered the tortures of death on the cross if it weren’t necessary.
The devil wants me to believe the lie about no hell and no punishment. Maybe he thinks he can fool me so I follow him into his sad eternal fate.
It’s a good thing I can read the Bible. It says: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
I don’t have to worry about the punishment of hell. That’s no lie. I believe in Jesus as my Savior from sin. That’s the truth God wants everyone to believe.
Pastor R.